Chapter 438: Chapter 301: Robber Behavior
Four carriages traveled along the road.
Departing from the Simon Museum in the center of Peacock City, they headed east along the Feather River, crossed an arch bridge, and then turned south to exit through the city gates of Peacock City.
Passing over the long suspension bridge and crossing the magnificent river, they directly entered the main road of the suburbs, seemingly heading towards the next city.
The four carriages were in a straight line, moving at a leisurely pace.
As they passed through a field, the horses pulling the carriages suddenly stopped uncontrollably, as if startled, kicking their hooves agitatedly and snorting loudly.
The coachmen were both surprised and puzzled, but no matter how they scolded or whipped the reins, the horses refused to move even a step.
...
At this moment, a group of about a dozen men and women slowly emerged from the woods on both sides.
Their attire was that of the typical middle class—suit hats, long skirts, and dress shoes—making them easily mistaken for wealthy folks out on a country outing, but their expressions were uniformly indifferent.
“Gentlemen, may I ask if you need any help?”
The coachman, sitting atop the carriage, asked with a face full of questions.
However, the group of strange men and women did not answer.
A middle-aged gentleman among them stared intently at the second carriage and said with a faint smile,
“Mr. Domme, I know you are inside the carriage. Why not come out and have a chat?”
A few seconds of silence passed.
The curtain of the second carriage was lifted from the inside.
A slightly chubby middle-aged man in a high tophat and tailcoat, leaning on a wooden cane, then stepped out. With a face full of frost and anger, he strode over to the group of strangers and rebuked,
“Osmon! You really are just a bunch of damn flies, endlessly annoying! What exactly do you want?!”
“Heh, Mr. Domme, there’s no need to be so excited.”
The man named Osmon laughed lightly.
“We only want three of the exhibits. It’s nothing big. For your countless collectibles, they are just a small part, aren’t they? And we aren’t taking them for free, we’ll pay for them.”
“Utterly ludicrous!”
Domme’s palm just gripped the cane, fiercely striking it against the ground.
“You show no sincerity, offering twenty Gold Pounds for my prized possessions. Do you think I’m short of money, or do you see me as a beggar? This is an insult!”
He stepped forward fearlessly, facing Osmon.
“Even if I were to give them all away for free, they would still be mine to dispose of as I please, and you will not get them!”
“Why go to such lengths?”
Osmon’s face still wore an audacious smile.
He shook his head and gestured with his hand.
“We didn’t want to do this either, but you are too stubborn… Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you. We just want to borrow those three items to study them a bit.”
Immediately, Osmon’s subordinates stepped forward, dragged down the coachmen of the four carriages, and began moving wooden boxes out of the carriages, prying them open and searching through their contents.
The coachmen were terrified, crouching on the ground and shivering, not daring to resist.
And these unfamiliar men and women were exceedingly rough, seemingly indifferent to the damage their actions might inflict on those valuable antiques and famous paintings.
“Stop! You band of robbers!”
Domme cried out in a fit of rage, but no one listened to him.
Eventually, at his wit’s end, he pulled out an ornately gilded flintlock gun from his waist and aimed it at Osmon’s face, threatening,
“Order your men to stop at once! Otherwise, I will start shooting!”
“Mr. Domme, you should be aware that this kind of firearm poses no threat to a Transcendent,”
Osmon, facing the barrel of the gun, said slowly, with a smirk on his lips.
The veins on Domme’s forehead throbbed as he took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A loud gunshot pierced the serene countryside.
But the bullet missed.
Osmon moved with incredible speed, dodging the bullet, and positioned himself next to Domme, striking him in the abdomen and knocking him down.
Domme cried out in pain, collapsing to the ground, clutching his stomach and curling into a ball.
“Ah… you, you damn robbers! Being members of the Righteous God Church and doing such things, you’re no different from the beasts of the Red Apple Church!”
The plump middle-aged man retched twice; his tears mixed with his saliva as he spoke unclearly.
Osmon, the deputy head of the History and Ritual Association’s subdivision, stood quietly in front of Domme, as if deaf to his curses, his attention fully on his subordinates who were rummaging through wooden crates.
“Has the era really changed… Even the Righteous God Church no longer protects humanity, instead becoming a persecutor… The Empire! Tresor Empire, can it ever return to its former state…?”
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Domme, feeling utterly disheartened, suddenly began to cry with a choked sob.
When he was a child, his grandfather had told him that the Simon Family had also been among the nobility hundreds of years ago, but had fallen into decay and reluctantly turned to commerce.
Domme still remembered his grandfather’s bitter smile and his words of resignation… The reason the nobility were nobility was because they had achieved great military exploits at the dawn of the Empire, being among the first batch of Transcendents who had campaigned alongside the Sun King.
At that time, nearly every noble family possessed its own mystic traditions and could cultivate their own Transcendents… But as the laws of the Sun King were enacted, supernatural knowledge within the Empire was purged and cut off.
Chaos and rebellion began to incite in that era, with the independence of the Anlong United Kingdom also rooted in this reason.
As time gradually progressed, the rule of the Empire stabilized.
But over the course of four thousand years, the nobility increasingly detached themselves from the mystic realm, left only with the glory of their ancestors. Although today some nobles still pursue the mystic by leveraging their status and wealth to seek transcendence, very few actually grasp the essence of supernatural knowledge and ascend to be Transcendents.
And most of them just linger in the Low Sequence.
Mid to High Sequence supernatural knowledge has long been monopolized by the Righteous God Church.
Furthermore, the nobility have always been under tight surveillance from the Shelter and the Sun Church, and any emergence of a Transcendent among them would be suppressed immediately.
Local governance throughout the Empire is managed by local councils and security offices, and any harmful incidents related to the mystic realm are dealt with and suppressed by the Empire’s Shelter and the Seven Righteous God Churches.
In the beginning, there was orderly regulation; whether they were nobles, merchants, or commoners, both life and property were secured, and the Empire flourished.
But the authoritarian style of the Empire and the Sun Church left many deep-seated issues.
Four thousand years later, chaos began to reignite across regions, order is evolving towards disorder. Apart from the Sun Church, which is connected to the Royal Family, all the Seven Righteous God Churches have lost their original principles and creeds, becoming neglectful. Relying solely on the Shelter is no longer enough to suppress the situation throughout the Empire; they are overwhelmed.
The rebellion of the Red Apple Church caused the Tresor Empire to be in turmoil, which is the best example.
“Vice President Osmon, we’ve found the items.”
At that moment, two subordinates from the History and Ritual Association, a man and a woman, approached the middle-aged man. They ignored Domme, who had collapsed at their feet, and handed over the items they were carrying.
A piece of stele fragment, a sheepskin manuscript, and an ancient book.
“Hmm, well done.”
A smile flashed across Osmon’s face as he praised them.
Just as he was about to take the three artifacts, his expression suddenly changed drastically.
His body hair stood on end inexplicably, and a strong sense of crisis emerged, as if he were in a freezing snowy landscape.
“Who?!”
Osmon spun around abruptly and looked behind him.
A dozen subordinates, upon hearing the Vice President’s roar, quickly turned their gaze in that direction.
They saw a figure cloaked in rust-spotted black armor, hunched over, slowly approaching. The knight dragged a fearsome silver broad blade sword in his hand, with a crimson cape fluttering loudly behind him.
An aura of ferocity and brutality assaulted everyone present!
Clack, clack…
The heavy greaves hit the ground, leaving footprints one after another.
“Passing by this area, it seems I’ve come across something interesting…”
A deep voice emanated from the knight’s helmet, framed by dark cross-shaped slits.
Osmon stood rooted to the spot, his entire body rigid.
Cold sweat streamed down his forehead and back the next second.
“Black… Black Spade Knight Qiaoke…”
A dry voice croaked from Osmon’s throat.
Rival to the “Ferryman’s Sword” Bales, a notorious double knight of Tresor, an Empire level S wanted offender, he had decapitated one of the incarnations of Terence from the Sun Church’s Solar Monastery, and had recently been destroying branches of the Red Apple Church frequently…
All these terrifying titles were directed at this frightful knight before them.
Osmon now only wanted to flee this place, not willing to waste a second of time, and he couldn’t muster even a bit of courage to resist.
But he dared not make any rash moves.
He was scared, he was terrified!
“Mr. Qiaoke, may I ask what you want?”
Osmon forced a smile and asked aloud.
The dozen subordinates around him all wore shocked expressions, holding their breath, not daring to make any noise.
Chen Lun stopped twenty meters away, slowly raised a hand, and pointed at the three items held by the man and the woman next to Osmon.
“Give them to me, you live. Don’t give them to me, you all die.”
His indifferent and deep voice, like the decree of Death, was clearly heard by everyone present.
Being a Mid Sequence Transcendent, Osmon had undergone a transcendent transformation. A strong premonition told him that the slightest irrational act would result in his being decapitated the next second, with almost zero chance of survival!
He felt utterly horrified!
How could the Black Spade Knight appear here?!
How could he be so terrifying?!
If they really fought, his side had no chance of victory…
“Give them to him.”
Osmon dared not turn his head, his eyes lowered, staring intensely at the ground in front of the Black Spade Knight as he commanded his subordinates.
“Vice President?”
The man and the woman were somewhat puzzled and reconfirmed.
“I said, give them to him!”
Sweat from Osmon’s face had already started to drip onto the ground.
His neck stiffened like a rusted machine, lifting hesitantly, his expression a mix of pleading and begging:
“Mr. Qiaoke, I offer these items with both hands, please let us leave.”
Having said that.
The man and woman tensed up, stepped forward nervously, placed the three artifacts on the ground, and then slowly retreated.
Osmon gestured with his hand.
The group of Transcendents from the History and Ritual Association began to retreat slowly.
Chen Lun chuckled lowly, deliberately walked forward, bent down to pick up the three items, briefly played with them to confirm they were what he wanted.
Looking up again, Osmon and the dozen others had already started to flee towards the distance.
“Forgive me, I lied.”
Chen Lun stared directly at their retreating figures.
“Give them to me, still, you all die… because I don’t like the look of you.”
Lying on the ground, Domme dared not move; he tightly closed his eyes, hearing the terrifying knight’s voice, his heart shuddered.
He gathered the courage to open his eyes, only to discover nobody in front of him.
Looking around as he stood up, he saw a horrific scene, his face full of horror.
The knight had merely stepped forward, crossing the long distance to behind Osmon and the others, and with a single sweep in mid-air—
With just one horizontal strike.
Osmon, along with several people around him, were all cut in half at the waist.
Their expressions were still fixed in shock and fear.